Just Friends
by Virtute-The-Cat
Summary: Frank attempts to talk to a frustrated and emotional Joe, after he returns home from a disasterous evening with Iola. Chapter two now up! Likely to be a three-part story. All feedback is welcome.
1. Chapter 1

The TV droned softly in the background and eighteen-year-old Frank Hardy slept peacefully on the couch. A physics textbook lay haphazardly across his chest; its final resting place after it had slipped from its owners grasp during a night time study session.

Suddenly, the front door slammed shut and Frank awoke with a start, knocking the book to the floor. His heart was pounding a million miles an hour, but it slowed when he saw his sixteen-year-old brother enter the living room.

"Geez Joe, you scared me half to death," Frank muttered in a slightly annoyed tone of voice. "I was asleep and I thought you were someone trying to break in."

"I didn't mean to slam it," Joe retorted. "Besides, as if a thief would make that much noise while breaking in," he continued sarcastically, before throwing himself into the couch opposite Frank and sighing loudly. He slid his feet from his sneakers and tucked his feet up under his body.

Frank frowned at his brother's demeanour and tone of voice. "What's up with you?"

Joe shifted slightly and looked away from Frank. "Nothing."

"It doesn't seem like nothing," Frank pressed. "I thought you were hanging out with Iola tonight? I didn't expect to see you back so soon." He could see that Iola and Joe's friendship had been developing into a bit more than that over the past few months and he and Chet, one of his closest friends and Iola's older brother, had enjoyed teasing them relentlessly about it.

Joe raked his hands through his blonde hair and glanced back towards Frank. "Yeah well, we were and now we're not, ok?"

"Did you guys have a fight about something?" Frank inquired with concern.

"Kind of. Not really. I don't know… sort of," Joe replied. "I don't want to talk about it." He picked up the remote from the small wooden table beside him and clicked angrily in the direction of the TV, increasing the volume. He stared blankly at the screen, not taking in anything he was hearing.

Frank got up from the couch, walked over to the TV and switched it off. "Come on Joe, what happened? It's obviously bothering you."

"I was watching that, Frank!" Joe burst out angrily.

"No you weren't," Frank responded calmly. "I'm keeping the remote until you tell me what's got you so annoyed and upset. Besides, I'm a pretty good listener and I care about you, bro." He walked over and sat down next to Joe on the edge of the couch, being careful to leave him a little space.

"I told you I don't want to talk about it," Joe sighed. "Besides, it's kind of lame anyway." He turned to face his brother. "Sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"I'm sure it's not that lame," replied Frank. "You know, I've been with Callie for almost two years now, and this is all kind of new for you. If you tell me what's going on, I might be able to give you some advice."

Joe thought about this for a moment. "Maybe," he said thoughtfully. "Things seem to be going ok for you guys."

Frank smiled a little at the thought of his intelligent, kind and beautiful girlfriend. "Yeah, she's pretty great. But so is Iola; you two have been practically inseparable lately and I'm sure you'll work things out."

"I know she's great; she means so much to me," Joe replied. Almost inaudibly, he continued, "I told her that I loved her earlier on tonight."

Frank tried to mask the shock that flashed fleetingly across his face. This was the first time that he'd ever really heard his brother acknowledge that he and Iola were more than their standard line of "just friends".

Joe continued on. "Do you know what she said back to me?"

Frank shook his head. "That she loves you too? I don't see the problem."

"Wrong. She said 'thanks'. Not even 'thanks, I love you too'. Just 'thanks', and nothing else. I can't believe I told her that, I seriously thought she felt the same way." Joe let out a heavy sigh. "I feel so stupid."

"It's not stupid to tell someone how you feel about them, Joe," Frank replied. "Maybe she just wasn't expecting you to say that to her and didn't know how to react? Give her some time to think things over and I'm sure you guys will work things out."

"I'm going to have to change my name and move," Joe wailed dramatically. "I'm never going to be able to face her again."

Frank tried to stifle a laugh, unsuccessfully. "Don't you think there's a slight chance that you're overreacting just a little, bro?"

Joe's blue eyes flashed angrily as he glared at Frank. "I'm glad my suffering is so amusing for you. I thought you said you were going to help me, not mock me." He got up off the couch and stormed from the living room, heading for his bedroom.

Frank heard a door slam shut loudly and sighed. "Come on, Joe…wait a moment," he called after him. "I'm sorry, you're right. I didn't mean to make fun of your situation. He walked over to Joe's bedroom and knocked on his door. "Joe?"

There was no answer from inside. "Seriously Joe, I'm sorry. Let me in so we can talk about this some more." Frank leaned heavily against the wall, waiting for his brother to respond. Joe's personality had been particularly moody and erratic lately, but Frank had tried to ignore it largely. He remembered all of the same feelings and emotions that he'd gone through when he was Joe's age and just starting to fall for Callie. He knocked on the door again. "Open up, bro."

Loud music began to blare from inside the bedroom and Frank took that as his cue to give up any hope of talking to Joe that night. With a sigh, he turned around and headed back to the living room, grateful that his parents and aunt had gone away for the weekend and didn't have to witness his brother's attempt to win an Oscar for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Performance".


	2. Chapter 2

Joe lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The thudding music surrounding him did little to abate his bad mood and he felt himself growing more and more hostile as he began to take note of the singer's vocals, recounting tales of lost love. With a frustrated groan, he rolled over and turned the volume down. He briefly considered going out to the living room to apologise to Frank, but he didn't feel much like talking or potentially getting into another argument with his brother.

* * *

Meanwhile, Frank had returned to his physics book and was deeply engrossed in Schwinger's theory of multiple neutrinos. Just as he was about to finish the chapter, he was interrupted yet again by someone at the door.

"What now?" he grumbled to himself, getting off the couch and heading over to see who had disturbed his reading. He cracked open the front door, leaving the security chain firmly in place. He found himself looking into the pixie-like face of his brother's girlfriend.

"Hi Frank," Iola greeted him pleasantly. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Frank replied. "Sorry, here… come on in." He closed the door, freeing the lock and then opened it widely, motioning for Iola to come in.

Iola breezed through the door. "Is Joe home?" she inquired, attempting to smooth down her wind-blown dark hair.

"Yeah, he's in his room," Frank replied. "I have to warn you though; he's not in the best mood at the moment, but you probably know more about that than I do."

Iola raised an eyebrow and carefully studied his face. "What's that supposed to mean?" she responded calmly.

Frank felt his face colour slightly; he hadn't meant to come across as accusatory. "Sorry Iola, I didn't mean anything by that. Joe was just kind of upset about something when he came home and mentioned to me that you guys had had some kind of disagreement."

"I don't know if I would call it a 'disagreement'," Iola replied. "But I'll keep your warning in mind when I see him."

"Well, feel free to try and talk to him," Frank said, as they walked through to the living area. He spotted his forsaken physics book lying on the floor and picked it up. "You know, I might actually go over to Callie's and give you guys some space to sort things out."

"You might want to leave the book behind then Frank," Iola commented, dryly. "I'm sure Callie would love to spend her Friday night with you and your textbook."

For the second time in five minutes, Frank felt his face begin to colour again. He quickly put the book on a small coffee table. "Yeah, well… ok, I'll see you later, ok?" he stammered. "You can just go on through to Joe's room."

"Thanks," Iola replied, as she headed towards his brother's bedroom.

Frank smirked a little as he searched for his car keys and wallet. Apparently 'thanks' was the word of the night. He couldn't wait to talk to his brother the following day and find out what happened. He walked out the front door of his house, eager to escape his madhouse and see his blonde-haired girlfriend.

* * *

Joe heard another knock on his bedroom door. "Go away, Frank!" he shouted. "I'm not in the mood to argue or fight."

"Good, I'm glad to hear that," Iola replied, as she flung open her boyfriend's bedroom door and entered his messy, cluttered room.

Joe looked up at her from his bed in surprise. "Oh hey, sorry, I didn't expect to see you." Trying to cover any traces of anger or frustration in his voice, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Iola sat down carefully beside her boyfriend on his bed. "I was thinking about what happened earlier and I didn't feel great about it. I wanted to come and talk to you and see if you were ok."

"Yeah, I'm completely fine," Joe replied. "Why wouldn't I be?" He looked away, trying to avoid staring into Iola's beautiful and intense green eyes.

Iola smiled softly. "Liar," she said, reaching out to touch his face and turning it gently towards her own. "Did you mean what you said earlier tonight?"

Joe swallowed hard, unsure of how to reply. "Yeah, I did," he admitted after a brief pause. "I absolutely did." He closed his eyes and felt his breath hitch as Iola leaned down and kissed him very delicately on the lips.

After a moment, she pulled away from him, studying him intently. Joe lay on his back, breathing heavily and savouring the feeling of her soft mouth against his.

Without saying a word, Iola got up from his bed and turned off the main light. Joe's bedroom was bathed in a dull glow coming from a single lamp beside his bed. She walked back towards her boyfriend, nervously pulling her arms through the sleeves of her faded purple t-shirt and lifting it over her head. She let it fall to the floor and stood at the end of Joe's bed, clad only in jeans and a simple black bra.

Joe's heart raced as he watched her undress in front of him. They had made out before, but things had never quite reached this level so quickly. He sat up on his bed and reached out to her, pulling her gently towards him. She fell lightly against him onto his bed and this time, Joe was the one to kiss her.

Iola pushed her body against Joe's, deepening the kiss and trying to get as close as possible to her boyfriend. She felt her breathing increase when she noticed him becoming affected by her actions, and she ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him even closer towards her.

Continuing to kiss her, Joe carefully rolled Iola over so that she was lying on her back with her head on his pillow and positioned himself above her. He went to reach underneath the silken material of her bra, but hesitated. _Go slow_, he thought, mentally kicking himself. _Make this about her too._

The truth was that although Joe liked to joke around and play up to his reputation of a ladies man, he had very little actual experience. He moved his hand up higher and swept her long, dark hair to one side of her neck. Leaning in, he trailed a path of soft kisses down her slender neck and back up to her mouth.

Noticing her breathing increase further encouraged him, and deepened the kiss again. He reached down, stroking her flat tummy lightly. After a moment, Iola reached down and took hold of his hand, placing it over her bra. Joe began to move against the delicate material and Iola arched her back, pressing against him.

"Are you turned on?" she whispered to him with a small smile.

Joe moved away from her, slightly embarrassed that she had noticed. "Yeah," he confessed. "But I get turned on by just looking at the wall these days, so you have absolutely no idea what you're doing to me now," he joked.


End file.
